Travel Tip: Staying dry in Venice.

The worst flooding in 20 years has turned the canal-lined city of Venice into a veritable floating city. Storms have stirred up the Adriatic and brought torrents of rain. Flooding has reached the level of 5ft plus. Storms continued on Tuesday (December 2) though the flooding subsided slightly.

Though gondolas have always been a part of Venice's charm, they and water taxis are not in operation. Citizens are doing all they can to protect famed architecture and art.

Read more on SFGate.com.

Travel Tip: For the traveler, being in a storm and getting caught dripping wet can turn a dream vacation into a nightmare. When you are going places where it is likely to rain--and a lot--bring plenty of light, quick drying items like socks and undershirts. Getting wet makes it all the more likely that you will be cold. But layering and changing into dry things can take the chill away in no time. Light clothing is easy to rinse/wash and hang in your room without having to brave the storm again just to have your clothes cleaned!

Tom

Body of Copernicus Identified

The body of the famous priest and astronomer, Copernicus, has been officially identified. Interestingly, the DNA used to help confirm the identification was taken from strands of hair left in a book owned by Copernicus.

Copernicus' now-famous book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres) set the world in motion with concept that the earth rotated on its own axis and circled the sun.

Tom

Zeugma: City and Figure of Speech

Mention the names of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and many people today will immediately think of Iraq and the strategic location of Baghdad.

Of course, the importance of these rivers, if we remember well into our past, is biblical, mythological and legendary.

Along the two rivers, many important cities have risen, thrived and been destroyed. Ancient Babylon is not so very far away from modern Baghdad.

But a city that shares its name with a figure of speech has lost its match with human destiny.

Ancient Zeugma (or more properly, the twin cities of Seleucia and Apamea) was the literal link between cultures. The Romans built a bridge between the two cities--the only bridge over the Euphrates built in ancient times--and called the union Zeugma; Greek for a band, yoke or bridge, or a yoking or a joining. The new city became the garrison town of legio IV Scythica of the Roman army.

The ancient city eventually faded into memory, buried by Turkish sand; now it has been drowned. The need for water is a never ending need for humans, and one of our favorite structures is a dam. A dam can supply badly needed water for irrigation and for domestic use. The enormous lakes that result behind the dam can become popular recreation sites.

And it can (and often does) mean the drowning of past towns, cities and villages. Such was the fate of Zeugma when Turkey undertook to build a dam at Birecik. The flooding caused by the dam is significant, but archaeologists were able to persuade authorities to let them excavate as much as possible up to the flooding moment. Fortunately, there are some areas of Zeugma that now have a lakeside view and are giving up some fantastic ancient artifacts.

Finds at Zeugma before the flooding and currently have included Roman bronze armor, enormous mosaics, figures of Aphrodite and Mars.

While the ancient city lives no more, the figure of speech continues to survive, though we'd be hard pressed to find many who could call it by its name of the top of their heads.

A zeugma is when one word, such as a preposition or a verb, is used with two other words in different senses. For example, (slight variation on Shakespeare), "Lend me your ears and some money."

For an overview of the mosaics and archaeology at Zeugma, visit Nova and PBS.

Tom

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Mars is its closest to earth

This is an exciting time in astronomic circles. Mars' orbit will bring it to within its closest distance for some 70,000 years. Imagining how this event will strike us, we can't help but wonder how such astronomic events influenced ancient peoples.

Read about the event: Orbital Oddities: Why Mars will be So Close to Earth in August (from Space.com).

Tom